How to find out what employment law services your clients want

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Key Strategies for Law Firms 2011

If you haven't worked out by now that the business of marketing for lawyers is all about gearing up to serve the needs of clients who increasingly demand 'added value' services then it's definitely time for a crash course and studying the speeches at the Netlaw conference is a great place to start. See Key Strategies for Law Firms 2011.

In his excellent blog report about those speeches, Michael Scutt observed "In the afternoon Kevin Green Head of Legal for IBM UK gave a very interesting presentation on what corporate clients look for in the law firms they instruct. Surprisingly perhaps, IBM does not have a panel of firms to which it sends work. They look for firms that are innovative in the way they do business and that can differentiate themselves in the market."

Ways in which employment lawyers can differentiate themselves is by offering web services and fee structures that help their target market clients achieve their goals.

Effective marketing for lawyers depends on getting inside the ideal clients head and asking what he or she wants from your practice. But, a word of caution, don't expect client research to give you all the answers!

Henry Ford famously said that if he had asked his customers what they wanted he wouldn't have launched a car, he would have launched a faster horse!

When employment lawyers tell me they want to do market research with their clients before they license our HR Web Service I tell them it's exactly the right thing to do.

But when doing that research I politely suggest that they start by finding out what problems their clients have before they push solutions down their throats.

The clients that we work with tell us they find it difficult to manage their HR documents from multiple locations and this is one way that we can help them. If your clients have similar problems we may be able to help you win them over. Marketing for lawyers doesn't have to be hard work!